Abstract
Regardless of advancements in assistive technology, braille and large print books are still indispensable during visually impaired children’s emergent literacy development and early education. Visual impairment is the most widespread disability in South Africa and thousands of visually impaired children are registered at South African schools. Access to printed material during emergent literacy is imperative to children's literacy acquisition once they enter formal schooling and the extensive impact of limited access is well-documented. Children who are visually impaired often rely on tactile material to access information, but the production of tactile picture books for visually impaired children is highly specialised, time consuming and expensive.
This dissertation reports on the development and testing of a guideline for the adaptation of emergent literacy picture books into tactile picture books for visually impaired children in South Africa. It investigates the challenges surrounding the production of tactile picture books for visually impaired children within traditional publishing and the South African context. Through a critique of existing guidelines, the dissertation discusses a proposed guideline that can be used to adapt children’s picture books into a tactile picture book for visually impaired children in a South African context. Furthermore, it considers the adaption of an existing, open-source children’s book into a tactile picture book to test the adaption guideline. The dissertation concludes by reporting on participant feedback pertaining the adaption and make recommendations for future study.
Study participants agreed that the size, weight, material, binding and addition of braille and large print text in the adapted book was appropriate. Participants responded positively to the 3D-printed, tactile illustration samples but agreed that 3D-printed braille samples were uncomfortable to read. Some participants recommended the addition of braille labels and additional tactile cues to aid tactile readers in the identification of models. Most participants agreed that QR codes with embedded sound are accessible to a wide range of readers without the need for specialised equipment.
Most visually impaired study participants could not independently access embedded sounds and the addition of appropriate directives to tactile readers should be
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investigated. While the use of 3D-models and simplified page construction allowed for easy production in multiple languages, small-scale braille applications were not time-efficient. Other Latin fonts tailored to African languages can also be explored for large print text. An exploration into an interchangeable set of language pages for multilingual contexts can also be investigated.
KEYWORDS
Tactile picture books, visually impaired children, emergent literacy, accessible design